Government shutdown curbs Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo

Three-year-old Bradley Fridley is wide-eyed as he gets to experience the cockpit of a WWII-era B-25 at the Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo at Los Alamitos Army Airfield in 2010.MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo 2013

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: 11200 Lexington Drive, Los Alamitos

Cost: Parking and admission are free

Flying: Children 8 to 17 years old can take a free ride in an airplane with the Experimental Aircraft Association Young Eagles program. Anyone else can pay about $40-$60 to ride in a helicopter. Call 310-355-1959 to buy tickets before the event. There will be other planes to explore on the ground and likely a couple of flyovers.

Cars: Organizers are accepting applications for roadsters and hot rods right up until the show begins. The base commander, mayor of Los Alamitos and others will give out awards to their favorite cars.

Dream flights for vets

Veterans take to the sky before Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo thanks to the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation. The nonprofit is touring the country to give back to veterans by taking them up in a biplane, free of charge.

"Our mission is to give back to those that have given," President Darryl Fisher said.

Ageless Aviation, which has been operating since 2011, will fly 250 dream flights this year, Fisher said. It'll be the first time his organization has flown from an active military base.

Fisher is flying the veterans from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday in his 1940 Boeing Stearman, a World War II training plane. It'll be parked at the expo on Sunday.

STARBASE by the numbers

The STARBASE Youth program is a Department of Defense initiative meant to encourage students to go into STEM fields as they grow up. The Los Alamitos STARBASE facility opened in May.

46: Number of federal and state agencies that are tenants at the Joint Forces Training Base, showcasing a variety of STEM jobs

5: Days of hands-on training for fifth-graders since they begin picking electives the next year

7: Months in advance the Los Alamitos STARBASE facility is booked

$5 million: Funding directed to the program by Congressman and former educator Alan Lowenthal in July

"STEM education is not just a Washington buzz word – it is a pathway for students in Southern California and all across the nation to pursue careers in a field where jobs are available and demand is high," said Lowenthal, who represents the Joint Forces Training Base, in a statement.

A massive C-17 cargo plane sitting on a Los Alamitos runway is one of the hallmarks of Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo.

“The best sight of the day is when that C-17 leaves, when that thing roars up and goes down that runway and takes off,” said Johnnie Strohmyer, chief executive of the Los Alamitos Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the expo.

But its 170-foot wingspan won't be shading visitors at the Joint Forces Training Base on Sunday. Active military planes like the C-17 won't be showcased at the expo after the government shutdown locked in sequester cuts to military outreach programs.

Strohmyer and other organizers are excited about the Expo anyway – for a little while, it looked like the shutdown could have canceled it.

“If the government was still shut down, there might have been some questions on how far we could have proceeded with this. But the stars lined up,” said Tom Lasser, a retired commander of the Los Alamitos Army airfield who founded the event 13 years ago and still helps run it.

Around the country, air shows were closed due to budget cuts imposed in Washington this year: first the March sequester, then the October shutdown.

Wings, Wheels, Rotors cleared those hurdles because it's a community-organized event that costs the military nothing but the use of its air strip, according to organizers.

Still, it lost a few of the feathers in its cap, and expo organizers have been finding replacements.

There will be more historic planes to make up for the lack of fighter and cargo jets (at least 22 are scheduled now, according to the show's air boss) as well as more military vehicles and first-responder vehicles like fire trucks and helicopters, Strohmyer said.

Organizers got lucky when they learned the Ageless Aviation Dreams Foundation could come to town and display its biplane.

“I know we're not going to get what we've always expected in the past, but I think what we're going to have here is going to be exciting,” Strohmyer said

Another cutback was a display on what are called the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and that's been harder to fill.

The military has lately made a push to encourage students to go into STEM fields because it relies on well-trained engineers and scientists to develop and maintain its fighting force.

That massive C-17 missing from the expo this year is an example of why STEM learning is so important, even in Southern California. It provided highly skilled, highly paid jobs for years in Long Beach, where 257 of the cargo jets were built until September.

But the U.S. is falling behind in engineering graduates, according to military STEM programs, threatening the country's ability to build up its military.

Three-year-old Bradley Fridley is wide-eyed as he gets to experience the cockpit of a WWII-era B-25 at the Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo at Los Alamitos Army Airfield in 2010. MINDY SCHAUER, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Units of the California Army National Guard fire off a salute to begin the 10th annual Wings, Wheels and Rotors Expo 2011 at the California National Guards Joint Forces Training Base. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The California National Guard band marched the tarmac at the Wings, Wheels and Rotors Expo 2011. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Black Hawk helicopters delivered the finalists in the 2012 Best Warrior Competition at the 10th annual Wings, Wheels, Rotors & Expo 2011 at the California National Guards Joint Forces Training Base. MICHAEL GOULDING, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Darryl Fisher, left, and veteran Walt Rozett from Sacramento. COURTESY AGELESS AVIATION DREAMS FOUNDATION
The Lyon Air Museum's B-25 Mitchell, the "Guardian of Freedom," flew patrols in Alaska during World War II. It will be showcased at Wings, Wheels, Rotors and Expo this Sunday. COURTESY LYON AIR MUSEUM
Attendees wait in line to enter a C-17 Globemaster during the Wings Wheels & Rotors event in 2008. MARK MARTINEZ, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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